Using keywords in the right way is the most effective way of improving the business of your website . This is so because most of the websites have 70-80% of their traffic come from search engines and that is where the keywords you use payoff.

Eight years ago, keyword research was a tool to feed all sorts of tricks to fool the search engines. Those days are gone and the tricks don’t work anymore with the refined and complex search algorithms that search engines use.

Keyword Research is now recognized as a marketing tool- a tool to understand the customers better.

Following are the ways to actually make better use of keywords:

1. Expand your keyword list:

There are two fundamental ways in which you can expand your keyword list:

1. Long tail keywords that give you depth and allow you to dominate a particular market - so, moving from "bikes" to "mountain bikes" or "all terrain bikes"

2. Related keywords that allow you to broaden the range of market sectors that you can target . So, if you are selling business telephones, you might find opportunities in related keywords like "voice over ip". "VoIP", "internet telephony" etc

Four Strategies to consider for improving your keywords list:

• Find out how your top keywords are used inside longer phrases .
• Look for related keywords
• Rather than concentrating just on the top terms, look for value in the longer tail of keywords that may appear low, but still offer profitable opportunities.
• Look for niche or emerging markets that you might be able to identify before your competitors do